Proper way to remove old kernels from PVE 8.0.4 & which are safe to remove

[Tweek]

Good afternoon,
Proxmox appears to be holding a bunch of old kernels when i perform the following from shell it returns the following results below. My question is which are safe to remove and what is the proper command? Googling points to apt purge pve-kernel-x-x-x-pve - Additionally, afterwards would i then need to perform a update-grub or update-grub2 command? Or is it safe enough to reboot afterwards?

Greatly appreciate in advance any insight into the question.

Here are the results i mentioned above.

root@pve:~# dpkg --list|grep pve-kernel
ii pve-firmware 3.7-1 all Binary firmware code for the pve-kernel
ii pve-kernel-5.15 7.4-4 all Latest Proxmox VE Kernel Image
rc pve-kernel-5.15.102-1-pve 5.15.102-1 amd64 Proxmox Kernel Image
rc pve-kernel-5.15.104-1-pve 5.15.104-2 amd64 Proxmox Kernel Image
rc pve-kernel-5.15.107-1-pve 5.15.107-1 amd64 Proxmox Kernel Image
rc pve-kernel-5.15.107-2-pve 5.15.107-2 amd64 Proxmox Kernel Image
ii pve-kernel-5.15.108-1-pve 5.15.108-1 amd64 Proxmox Kernel Image
ii pve-kernel-6.2 8.0.5 all Proxmox Kernel Image for 6.2 series (transitional package)
rc pve-kernel-6.2.16-3-pve 6.2.16-3 amd64 Proxmox Kernel Image
rc pve-kernel-6.2.16-4-pve 6.2.16-5 amd64 Proxmox Kernel Image
ii pve-kernel-6.2.16-5-pve 6.2.16-6 amd64 Proxmox Kernel Image
rc pve-kernel-helper 7.3-8 all Function for various kernel maintenance tasks.

root@pve:~# dpkg --list|grep pve-kernel.*-pve
rc pve-kernel-5.15.102-1-pve 5.15.102-1 amd64 Proxmox Kernel Image
rc pve-kernel-5.15.104-1-pve 5.15.104-2 amd64 Proxmox Kernel Image
rc pve-kernel-5.15.107-1-pve 5.15.107-1 amd64 Proxmox Kernel Image
rc pve-kernel-5.15.107-2-pve 5.15.107-2 amd64 Proxmox Kernel Image
ii pve-kernel-5.15.108-1-pve 5.15.108-1 amd64 Proxmox Kernel Image
rc pve-kernel-6.2.16-3-pve 6.2.16-3 amd64 Proxmox Kernel Image
rc pve-kernel-6.2.16-4-pve 6.2.16-5 amd64 Proxmox Kernel Image
ii pve-kernel-6.2.16-5-pve 6.2.16-6 amd64 Proxmox Kernel Image

root@pve:~# apt autoremove
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

root@pve:~# apt autoclean
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done

root@pve:~# ls -l /boot
total 224994
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 261145 Jun 17 05:41 config-5.15.108-1-pve
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 275191 Jul 25 11:33 config-6.2.16-5-pve
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 275191 Aug 1 07:23 config-6.2.16-6-pve
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 2 Oct 12 2021 efi
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4 Aug 3 15:16 grub
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 61171383 Jun 22 09:12 initrd.img-5.15.108-1-pve
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 61480850 Jul 26 16:07 initrd.img-6.2.16-5-pve
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 61434108 Aug 3 12:37 initrd.img-6.2.16-6-pve
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 138712 Feb 11 05:16 memtest86+ia32.bin
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 139776 Feb 11 05:16 memtest86+ia32.efi
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 144312 Feb 11 05:16 memtest86+x64.bin
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 145408 Feb 11 05:16 memtest86+x64.efi
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 12 Aug 3 12:37 pve
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 6100662 Jun 17 05:41 System.map-5.15.108-1-pve
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 7676157 Jul 25 11:33 System.map-6.2.16-5-pve
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 7676157 Aug 1 07:23 System.map-6.2.16-6-pve
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 11362784 Jun 17 05:41 vmlinuz-5.15.108-1-pve
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 13589024 Jul 25 11:33 vmlinuz-6.2.16-5-pve
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 13594112 Aug 1 07:23 vmlinuz-6.2.16-6-pve
root@pve:~#

 

[LnxBil]

root@pve:~# dpkg --list|grep pve-kernel
ii pve-firmware 3.7-1 all Binary firmware code for the pve-kernel
ii pve-kernel-5.15 7.4-4 all Latest Proxmox VE Kernel Image
rc pve-kernel-5.15.102-1-pve 5.15.102-1 amd64 Proxmox Kernel Image
rc pve-kernel-5.15.104-1-pve 5.15.104-2 amd64 Proxmox Kernel Image
rc pve-kernel-5.15.107-1-pve 5.15.107-1 amd64 Proxmox Kernel Image
rc pve-kernel-5.15.107-2-pve 5.15.107-2 amd64 Proxmox Kernel Image
ii pve-kernel-5.15.108-1-pve 5.15.108-1 amd64 Proxmox Kernel Image
ii pve-kernel-6.2 8.0.5 all Proxmox Kernel Image for 6.2 series (transitional package)
rc pve-kernel-6.2.16-3-pve 6.2.16-3 amd64 Proxmox Kernel Image
rc pve-kernel-6.2.16-4-pve 6.2.16-5 amd64 Proxmox Kernel Image
ii pve-kernel-6.2.16-5-pve 6.2.16-6 amd64 Proxmox Kernel Image
rc pve-kernel-helper 7.3-8 all Function for various kernel maintenance tasks.

The rc are not there anymore, so you only have 2 kernels installed:

ii pve-kernel-5.15.108-1-pve 5.15.108-1 amd64 Proxmox Kernel Image
ii pve-kernel-6.2.16-5-pve 6.2.16-6 amd64 Proxmox Kernel Image

 

[maomaocake]

you can try using the kernel clean script from https://tteck.github.io/Proxmox/


the normal disclaimer applies to running scripts from the web

 

[Tweek]

The rc are not there anymore, so you only have 2 kernels installed:

ii pve-kernel-5.15.108-1-pve 5.15.108-1 amd64 Proxmox Kernel Image
ii pve-kernel-6.2.16-5-pve 6.2.16-6 amd64 Proxmox Kernel Image

Thank you kindly for the insight.

 

[Tweek]

you can try using the kernel clean script from https://tteck.github.io/Proxmox/


the normal disclaimer applies to running scripts from the web

Familiar with the site and tried the script beforehand. Thank you.

 

[JellyBeanEnjoyer]

you can try using the kernel clean script from https://tteck.github.io/Proxmox/


the normal disclaimer applies to running scripts from the web

Just used this to clear out 11(!) old kernels from my Proxmox Mail Gateway. Disk usage on / climbed ~10G in < 1 year. No issues. Free'd up ~6G.

 

[pavlos]

the script does not remove entries from /boot

 

[chrcoluk]

apt autoremove was clean'ish, not sure I am a fan of this new trend of basically running scripts direct from the web. I suggest anyone considering this, to examine it before running it as is standard good practice, so wget, and examine then run locally.

 

[LnxBil]

not sure I am a fan of this new trend of basically running scripts direct from the web.

Welcome to the world of unexperienced homelabbers, that don't support the product financially, cry the loudest if something does not work and run scripts directly from the internet. I don't get it either.